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Software deep dives, equipment reviews, tutorials, imaging sessions, and field notes — everything published on Mac Observatory.
152 articles
Meridian Is in Apple's New MacBook Pro Film
Apple's film for the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display opens on Meridian, showing my image of M81 in the catalog.
Wavelet Sharpening for Planetary Images on Mac: A Strata Tutorial
Six layers, one change at a time: how to recover planetary detail without halos, grain or false texture.
M61: A Place That Grows Fast
Ten hours of integration on M61 (NGC 4303), the supernova factory of the Virgo Cluster, and a short story about a girl learning to read the sky in a failing town, and the one lesson that changes how she sees both.
How to Collimate a Schmidt-Cassegrain on a Mac with Laminar
Get the star on screen from an ASIAIR or a hand controller, then let Laminar's Collimation Aid name the screw, the direction and the amount.
Laminar 1.9.2: A Collimation Aid for Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescopes
Laminar 1.9.2 adds a Collimation Aid that measures an SCT's collimation from a defocused star and says which secondary screw to turn. 1.9.3 follows with two crash fixes.
M78: Two Fairly Bright Nuclei
Over 32 hours of integration on M78, the brightest reflection nebula in the sky, and a short story about a survey ship that reaches M78 two thousand years after its discovery.
How to Photograph the Moon Through a Telescope with an iPhone and Laminar
An iPhone at the eyepiece, Continuity Camera and Laminar on the Mac make a practical first lunar imaging rig. Here's the setup, and where a phone runs out of road.
LDN 1357: The Hand Is Not Open
Sixteen hours of integration on vdB 8, vdB 7, vdB 9 and the dark cloud LDN 1357 in Cassiopeia, and a short story about an astronomer who learns why the star beside the Helping Hand beats like a heart.
Wind and Astrophotography: What One Gusty Night Did to My Stars
Sixty-eight subs on M76 from DSP Remote, matched frame by frame against PHD2 logs and the site weather station.
NGC 4258: A Ruler Made of Water
Over 41 hours of integration on M106 (NGC 4258), the maser galaxy in Canes Venatici, and a short story about an astronomer who learns that measuring a galaxy's distance can also mean reading its future.
IR-Pass Filters for Planetary Imaging: 685 nm vs 742 nm on a Mac
Infrared steadies the seeing but costs light and resolution. How 685 nm and 742 nm IR-pass filters compare, with a Saturn test and a Mac workflow.
Laminar 1.9.1: Planetary Auto Focus, ADC Assist, and SHG Mode
Laminar 1.9.1 adds planetary Auto Focus, ADC Assist for setting an atmospheric dispersion corrector by measurement, and a focus score for spectroheliographs.